Part 2:  Sheryl
by animalwriter
Summary: I am Sheryl Nome. My life changes as I adjust to living with my still-hesitant Alto and continue my career as a singer and budding Valkyrie pilot. As one question still haunts us all: Whatever happened to the Megaroad One? 'Sequel' to "Part 1 - Mao."
1. Home With Me

私はシェリルノーム。(I am Sheryl Nome).

I am a professional singer, and now I am also a pilot. The first time I tried to fly a real Variable Fighter didn't turn out well. But I'm not the type of person to give up! I always persevere and keep at everything without flinching until I win! At least, I almost always have...

"Sheryl!" a small voice broke me from my thoughts and what appeared to be a young, purple-haired girl popped up next to me as I prepared to step into the Valkyrie for my second real flight.

"Klan!" I smiled at the micronized Zentradi. More than just micronized really – a genetic defect caused the normally voluptuous adult female Klan Klang to turn into a child of no more than twelve years when shrunk to human size. It could be unnerving at first, but eventually you got used to both of her forms.

She shot me a grin and a thumbs-up; "Good luck in your first flight exam! Remember – don't mess up and don't be _too _good, either. I won't have you beat me!"

I laughed and tossed my light hair behind a shoulder, then grabbed my helmet; "I'm Sheryl Nome. I never mess up and I strive to beat everyone eventually." She knew I was half-joking about the second part so I didn't worry about saying it. I turned and looked out at the sky of The Vajra Planet which our space colony had made into its home less than a month ago. We hadn't come up with our own name for it yet, but perhaps 'The Vajra Planet' is appropriate enough, doing justice to the insect-like life forms who had lived here. "Alto is..."

Klan shook her head, looking glum. Ever since she lost her one true love, Michael Blanc, she's thrown herself whole-heartedly into helping me with my own romantic endeavors. "Not here. He chose Ranka's concert... well, it being her first concert on the new planet and all. It's just too bad they had to schedule your exam for _this _day of all days."

"Ah, well," I smiled and pretended I didn't care. I was very good at that. "It's only right, I suppose. If I didn't have this I would be at Ranka-chan's concert as well."

"Yes..." Klan frowned. She was intuitive and could probably see through my act. Yet, she didn't say anything. Instead, she tried to change the subject. "You know," she said with a smile; "That Elmo has turned out to be a rather lucky agent indeed. Taking on both you _and _Ranka now."

"Yes, I'm afraid he might get a rather big head if we're not careful," I managed an indulgent smile while thinking of my enthusiastic manager. If it hadn't been for him I might have lost my singing career altogether when Grace abandoned me. I owed the man a lot, but I didn't mind sharing him with Ranka, either.

"Sheryl!" Klan exclaimed, pointing to the sky.

I looked where she gestured and saw the green creature flying towards me, its antennae wiggling with excitement. "Ai-kun!"

Our planet's remaining solitary Vajra floated above Klan, myself, and the Valkyrie, and a small piece of paper wafted down from him, landing in my awaiting hands. I smiled down at the note, which simply said 'Ganbatte, Sheryl-san!' and was signed by Alto and Ranka. "Thank you, Ai-kun!" I said to the Vajra, grateful that although my two closest friends could not be here, they were encouraging me from afar.

The green alien squealed and hovered above the Valkyrie, intent on observing my exam in their stead.

"Sheryl Nome," a more subdued voice said from across the grass.

"Sensei!" I turned to the flight instructor, walking up to me with his computer in hand.

"Exam Number One. Basic maneuvers. Are you ready?"

"Thousand percent!" I flashed Klan and Ai-kun a smile as I quoted one of my songs in English and saluted the instructor, ready to start my exam and show the world just what I was truly made of.

I put my helmet on at the instructor's nod and climbed into the Valkyrie, settling myself behind the controls. Closing my eyes before beginning, I took myself to that calm, collected place that had always helped me endure trials, and inwardly wished Ranka-chan good luck on her concert. The new song she had written over the past few weeks, 'Songbird', was one of the best I'd ever heard, and I was anxious to find out the audience's response to it.

And, despite the fact that Alto needed to go to her concert and not having him here was disappointing, I still had one thing that was always a comfort.

At the end of the day, he always came home with _me_.

* * *

**A/N: Does everyone like the story so far? 'Thousand percent' is a reference to the AWESOME song 'Universal Bunny', and 'Songbird' is the first song on the newly released Macross F holiday album 'cosmic cuune' – everyone's favorite legendary composer really outdid even herself on this series, in my opinion. The music is completely glorious!**

**'Ganbatte' is good luck in Japanese, for those of you who don't know. Similarly, 'sensei' is 'teacher'. Though I figure pretty much everybody knows that already ^_^**

**I hope to update this slowly, as well as the Mao one, so please let me know if you like it and leave reviews. Thanks!**


	2. Publicity Stunt

"Sheryl-san!" Ranka-chan threw herself at me with her usual enthusiasm as Klan, Ai-kun, and I met her backstage after the concert and after my – quite successful as a matter of fact – flying test.

"Ranka-chan," I hugged my friend back and smiled after breaking it; "Congratulations on your concert. I assume it went well."

"Very well!" she beamed at me, as cheerful as ever. "And your flying test?"

I flashed my hands in a V at her; "Complete success."

"Congratulations!"

"Yes," Klan chuckled; "She did very well. Nearly as well as me, but she still has a ways to go. Hello, Alto."

My throat gave its normal tiny jump as I looked up to meet the eyes of my current roommate and reluctant love-interest, Saotome Alto. He was walking up behind Ranka-chan, his normal, mild smile on his face. "Alto," I nodded, my tone of voice its usual picture of calm and serenity.

"Congratulations," he smiled at me, and I noticed Ranka-chan's expression shift to one of uneasiness as her bright amber eyes darted between myself and Alto.

The state of the various relationships between the three of us had been sort of unspoken since we had landed on the Vajra planet. Ranka-chan knew Alto and I were living together, but I could only assume she believed it to be a platonic or at least benign arrangement. To her credit, she hadn't given up the fight for him, and so I was still on guard especially considering that my indecisive Alto had as-yet still made no permanent declaration one way or the other to myself or Ranka-chan. But I was certain that I was currently in the lead, otherwise he would surely have ended our living arrangement as well as ceased our occasional ... other arrangements.

"I had ramen and tuna buns delivered from Nyan Nyan!" Ranka-chan said, trying to break the tension. "We should go to the other room and eat them. Can you stay, Klan? Luca-kun is supposed to come over soon. He's still visiting with Nanase-chan. I can't wait until the day she can leave the hospital and join our post-concert celebrations!"

"Yes. I hope that day is soon," I followed the rest of the group towards the back room where we usually ate. It would be wonderful when Nanase-chan could join us again. She was still unable to leave her bed except for physical therapy but had been making an excellent recovery otherwise. And with Luca constantly by her side I was sure that she was at least happy and content.

Elmo was already shoveling noodles into his mouth when we arrived, but he managed to toss them aside in order to run up and grasp Ranka-chan's hands; "Wonderful concert, Ranka-chan! Excellent! I can only hope the rest are better and better! Oh, Sheryl! You simply _must _hear my latest idea!"

"Ah. Well, would it be all right if I ate something first?" I offered my manager a smile, hoping he would be able to stave off his enthusiasm at least until I got some sustenance inside of me.

"Yes, yes, please. Alto, Klan, how are you? I must say that it is so encouraging that you all come out to support Ranka-chan and Sheryl like this!" His gaze drifted up to Ai-kun and he frowned a little. He was still somewhat uneasy around the Vajra, but I supposed that I could understand that, given his history living through Space War I. "How did your flight test go?" he asked me when I had perched on the arm of Alto's chair and bit into a tuna bun.

"Quite well. Of course, it was only basic maneuvers. No firing missiles or complicated tricks or anything yet. Just flying. But I passed with a very high score."

"Good," his brow furrowed; "But I must confess that I don't understand why you're still going to pilot school. Wasn't it initially just a publicity stunt because of Galaxy's disappearance?"

I smiled, noticing that all eyes were now on me. It was as if the group, even my Alto, had not considered this question before and were now realizing that it plagued them as much as it plagued Elmo. "Yes, of course it was a publicity stunt. But I'm Sheryl Nome. I see even my publicity stunts through to completion."

Klan laughed; "I can see that. At the rate you're going you would make an excellent pilot, though. Would you consider joining S.M.S. or the military?"

"I don't know. Perhaps. As I said, I want to do this right and do it wholeheartedly, so those options are always available to me. But there's a good year until I graduate, and I still have my music to attend to."

"Yes, yes," Elmo agreed. "I'm sure your dedication will have you see it through to completion, but I hope it doesn't interfere with your singing at all. You've been so focused on your exam as of late... do you have new lyrics for me yet?"

"Better than that, I have two," I smiled and idly tossed my lyrics at my manager.

"Sheryl!" his face lit up and everyone couldn't help but chuckle as he skimmed the lyrics, Ranka-chan hurrying over to peer at them over his shoulder. "Amazing! Wonderful! Just as expected! 'Obelisk' and 'Gira-Gira Summer', huh? Just thrilling!"

I smiled; "I thought of the concept of a song about summer after we landed on this beautiful, green planet."

"That's wonderful, Sheryl-san!" Ranka-chan lifted her head to give me an enthusiastic smile. "Alto-kun, you should read these!"

"I already have," he said, and then flushed and cleared his throat, staring down at his lap as a tiny look of disappointment crossed Ranka-chan's eyes.

"Oh, I see. Well, that makes sense, you both living together and all." To her credit, she smiled again and came over, perching on the other arm of Alto's chair, opposite me, as Klan and Elmo exchanged glances.

Somehow, it always ended up like this. An odd group of three, friends and yet always filled with an uneasy tension as Ranka-chan and I vied for Alto's affections. Alto was looking uncomfortable as usual, and I knew that it was the fact that he cared deeply for the both of us that kept him from voicing his final choice, even in private. But I was fairly certain that he _had _made a choice, and could only hope that my intuition was right and that he had chosen me.

Yet, I hated to think of Ranka-chan's disappointment should that happen. I cared for Ranka-chan too, and knew that she would take it very hard. Although, she had been growing quite a bit stronger after the final battle with the Vajra, and I was confident that she could recover in time.

Still, it was hard. This intense rivalry with a close friend.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the late update. I've been kind of busy but I hope to update once every week or two from now on, so bear with me and please keep reading and reviewing! :)**

**FYI, 'Obelisk' and 'Gira-Gira Summer' are both songs from the excellent 'Universal Bunny' Mini Album.**

**Thanks for reading! ^_^**


	3. Bilrer's Mission

"Anyway!" Elmo's normal enthusiasm broke us all out of the tense situation; "Would you both like to hear my latest idea now?"

I chuckled. He was positively _itching _to get this idea out. But my assumption had been that he had told Ranka-chan already, but as he watched anxiously for both of our reactions I realized maybe he hadn't. "Do you know about this, Ranka-chan?" I leaned so that I could face her, letting my hair fall forward and graze across Alto's shoulder as I did so – just to make him squirm a bit.

"Nn," she shook her head; "Elmo has been keeping quiet about it until we were both together. What is it, Elmo?"

"Joint Concert!" our manager's eyes reflected his excitement at the proposal.

"Joint Concert?" Ranka-chan repeated, her brow furrowing at the consideration. She looked surprised and quite frankly, so was I. Not that I had any opposition to singing onstage with Ranka-chan or anything. Yes, there was a time when I would have refused to share the spotlight with anyone, but my nature had changed quite a bit over the course of the battle with the Vajra and my experiences on Frontier. Of course, I wouldn't share the stage with just anybody, but Ranka-chan was a worthy partner.

"Yes! Can you imagine? Sheryl and Ranka! Ranka and Sheryl! Joint Concert! Idols! Music! Song! Inspiring the masses as we work on colonizing our new planet!"

"I wouldn't get too far ahead of yourself, Elmo," a new voice spoke, and I looked up along with the rest of the room to see that four newcomers had arrived in the doorway. Luca was scheduled to arrive, and Brera I had actually expected to be here already, and now that I thought about it I wondered why he was late. The other two individuals were not so expected: Skull Leader Ozma Lee and Lieutenant Catherine Glass. Granted, Ozma came to many of Ranka's concerts but he was usually busy these days with SMS business. More so than Alto and Luca were, certainly. He was the one who had spoken.

"Onii-chan and Onii-chan!" Ranka-chan leapt from her spot on the other arm of Alto's chair, waving at her two brothers, one adopted and one related by blood.

"Ranka!" Ozma gave his younger sister a broad grin and a wave while Brera simply offered a mild smile. "How was the concert?"

"Wonderful! They loved my new songs! And Sheryl-san's flight exam went well, too!" I smiled. Leave it to Ranka-chan to always remember to compliment others.

"Congratulations," Cathy smiled and gave me a nod. "Ozma is worried he might have some stiff competition if you choose to go through with this all the way," she smiled at her significant other, whose arm was currently resting around her waist. He simply chuckled and shook his head at her.

"Well, we'll see," I offered a vague response, smiling.

"Onii-chan," Ranka-chan addressed Brera; "You're sort of late. What happened? Were you meeting with Onii-chan again about what happened with the Vajra?"

This whole 'two brothers' thing could get confusing, I thought, removing myself from the chair arm and settling instead on Alto's lap, mimicking Ozma as I slipped my arms around his waist. Ever easily-flustered, my darling cleared his throat and offered me a slightly annoyed look. But I just smiled and he gave up. He really needed to develop his assertiveness more, but I wasn't complaining.

Ranka-chan's gaze shifted uneasily toward us as she listened to Brera's explanation.

"Captain Ozma and Lieutenant Glass found me after the concert as I was on my way back here. It seems the Captain and Bilrer just had a rather... interesting meeting."

"An assignment for SMS?" Klan asked, snapping to attention.

Luca shook his head gravely, apparently having been informed of this already; "No. At least not _yet_. More like something we might have to worry about in the future. Bilrer doesn't want to stay here."

"Yes, but we knew that already," Alto spoke up. "The overwhelming public opinion is for colonizing the planet, though. After everything that happened over the past few months, don't the citizens deserve some normalcy?"

"I agree with you, Alto, but SMS is not tied down to the desires of the masses," Ozma frowned. "I tried to encourage him to at least keep our base here, even if he wishes for us to continue to explore space."

"What _exactly _does he want us to do, Ozma?" Klan demanded more clarification, and I really couldn't blame her. This was sounding very strange, and with Alto tied to SMS anything that affected him also affected me.

"Essentially, he hasn't given up on his mission," Ozma explained, still frowning; "Yes, after the final battle with the Vajra he suffered a temporary loss of willpower but it didn't take long for his normal ambitions to come back. He thinks we can somehow learn how to use the Vajra network _without _tapping into it directly as Grace O'Connor and Galaxy attempted. He's convinced we need to do more research on fold quartz. That's why it was important to tell you right away, Ranka, Sheryl. With the V-Type virus still inside both of you, he might try to find some way to involve you in this. _Someone _might want to research you – and probably research Ai-kun as well. He's the only actual Vajra we have left."

Ranka's worried expression increased about ten-fold when he mentioned her beloved pet, but I was more concerned about how it would affect us two. I was tired of viruses and Vajra and fighting and space travel. I wanted to stay here, under Alto's beloved sky, and live a normal life. Yes, the idea of becoming a pilot was intriguing, but I hadn't even thought about what would happen if we got involved in another major mission.

"What can studying them possibly do?" Alto demanded, jumping to mine and Ranka's defense.

Luca shook his head; "You know Bilrer has a one-track mind. He's searching for _any _connection now. He just doesn't want to stop. His intentions are innocent enough, though. He just wants to find _her_."

"Lynn Minmay," I murmured acknowledgment. The legendary singer. Of course, I admired everything about the long-missing woman. She was an inspiration to everyone who took up the trade these days, the first person to show our society the amazing strength and power music truly had. Meeting her would be unbelievable, but...

"Ah, I know how Mr. Bilrer feels," Elmo sighed dramatically and nodded. As an aging Zentran who had lived through Space War I he, like Bilrer, felt that love towards Minmay that was especially dramatic in their species. "It would be wonderful to see her again and we all, of course, desperately want to know what happened to the Megaroad One, but..." here he frowned, and I wondered if his thoughts mirrored mine; "Well, we do have to move forward, don't we? We have a nice planet, and we have Sheryl and Ranka," he gestured to us in turn to make his point. "Their songs are just as strong as Minmay's were. I don't think SMS should _have _to continue Bilrer's search."

It seemed that Elmo was a lot wiser than his Zentraedi counterpart.

"Well, we won't have much choice if he goes through with it," Ozma admitted. "I just wanted to warn the group, that's all. At the very least he wants us to continue minor expeditions towards the galactic center using the fold quartz – hopefully enhancing its use through research, but the details of that are not worked out yet."

"Are they going to hurt the Vajra? Or try to find them again?" Ranka-chan asked, worried. "They left peacefully. We should leave them alone."

"I think he's more interested in trying to use the fold quartz to 'make' artificial Vajra," Luca admitted. "He thinks it would be feasible, and really it probably is. The Protoculture sort of did it. The bird human from your movie," he gave Ranka-chan a nod. "He's looking at some of the notes Dr. Mao made on it when she wasn't studying the V-Type virus. He's had me looking over them for a couple of weeks now, too," the young boy admitted, a sheepish expression on his face. "But it would be even better if we could find the notes from The Protoculture themselves. Dr. Mao was only able to discover so much."

"Obaa-san," I nodded. I had only met my grandmother twice. My parents had lived separately from her, remaining on Galaxy while Obaa-san did research on _Galia 4 _with Grace and Ranka-chan's mother. And then the planet had been attacked and my grandmother killed, after which Galaxy had come under harsh rule, and my parents were murdered for refusing to receive implants, and I was forced to live in the slums until Grace supposedly 'rescued' me. If only I had known then what she wanted me for! And yet, without her encouragement, I would never have become a singer, and so my feelings were quite mixed on the subject.

"Yes, Mao-obaa-san," Ranka-chan nodded. She actually knew my grandmother better than I did, now that her memories from those days had been returned to her. "She always loved the Vajra, didn't she, Onii-chan? She and Okaa-san used to sing 'Aimo' to us all the time."

"Mm," Brera smiled at the memory.

"And so, right now what are we supposed to do?" Alto asked, bringing us all back to the subject matter at hand.

"Wait," Ozma admitted. "Wait and see where Bilrer's whims take us."

"That doesn't sound enjoyable," I frowned, tightening my grip on Alto.

He sighed and nodded, not resisting our contact; "But in the meantime at least you have the joint concert to attend to, since we are still staying on this planet for the time being," he offered me an encouraging smile, and then turned and gave Ranka-chan one as an afterthought.

I resisted the urge to smack him upside the head for his indecisiveness, turning instead to smile at Elmo; "Then we'll do the concert. But we'll need a certain number of joint songs for it too, won't we?"

"We already have 'Lion'," Ranka-chan pointed out; "And the medley we sang during the battle with the Vajra, and I sang 'Infinity' with you before. But maybe we can both compose a new one for the concert! That makes at least five, and we can always do 'What 'bout my star?', too."

"Yes, yes, perfect, and you should both compose at least one new solo song as well!" Elmo encouraged.

"I just gave you two, isn't that enough?" I teased, but we both knew that I absolutely _loved _composing songs and was looking forward to this opportunity. Hopefully we'd stay on the planet long enough to do it.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry again for the late update. This is a longer chapter, though, and my ideas for the plot are finally starting to solidify! I think I got most of the technological and background info correct, but I'm not positive. Especially for the part about Sheryl's past (most of that is revealed in a backstory manga which I have not read, just seen a summary of) – I'm assuming she met Mao at least once based only on some pictures in her (adorable) fish phone from the first movie, but since the movies are technically not in the same universe as the TV series I'm not positive if that's right either.**

**That said, I've heard great things about the just-released second movie! I wish I could go see it! :)**

**A new Mao chapter is coming soon too; I've just got to watch Macross Zero once more.**


End file.
